Dell Inspiron i7559-763blk Review – How Good Is It? Is It Worth The Price?

This week, we will be reviewing the Dell i7559-763BLK laptop from the Inspiron 15 series we found on Amazon.com. Priced at under $800, this model features some pretty good specs for the price tag. It has a quad core processor with NVIDIA GeForce graphics and a 256 GB solid state hard drive, making it fast, powerful, and economical.

The Price

At under $800, this laptop is a really good deal. Many people would likely pay upwards of $1000 or more for similar features from top brands like Alienware or Apple. It happens to be a very good model for gaming on a budget. It’s very easy to overpay when it comes to computers, and sometimes common brands like Dell and Lenovo actually have some pretty good gaming rigs for much cheaper than average.

An important note: part of the reason this model is so cheap for the performance is because it lacks an optical drive. If you plan on using games that run off of discs, consider opting for digital downloads instead or investing in an external CD reader. You also have the option of running installers off of USB drives. Speaking of which, this laptop comes with 2 USB 3.0 ports on one side and 1 on the other. That should be enough for most users, but just in case you need more, you could always pick up a USB hub for pretty cheap at most supermarkets.

Design And Features

Both lefties and righties would be able to use the touchpad with ease. 6 pounds may be a bit hefty for a small computer, but it folds up nicely to about 1 inch, making it easy to fit in your arm or a carrying case. The screen is 15.6 inches wide, which is pretty big for a mid-range gaming laptop. Playing games or watching videos full screen in high resolution should look pretty crisp and immersive. Shortcut keys can be used to adjust brightness and other settings easily. The FHD screen also has anti-glare features.

The touchpad also has a resolution of 800 dpi, making movements pretty accurate. One thing that may be a bit annoying to some users, though, is the absence of hard buttons for left and right clicking. The touchpad has an area dedicated to clicking and it’s marked with red lines, but this may still take some getting used to if you’re used to hearing that satisfying click sound. An easy solution would be investing in a USB mouse, which you might be buying anyway for more accurate movement in Player versus Player and first person shooter games. Mice are also a good investment for laptop owners in general just in case anything ever happens to the touchpad and it starts acting up.

In addition to the above features, this Dell has Waves Maxx Audio Pro and an integrated subwoofer, pushing the sound quality up quite a bit. If you couple that with a good pair of gaming headphones, your games and music will sound even better than ever.

Other features include a backlit keyboard and a set of powerful cooling fans. You can play or work at night time and not have to worry about your laptop overheating and losing all your progress. Personally, that’s my biggest issue with most laptops I’ve owned. So many of them are ventilated poorly. This one is an exception to the rule.

The laptop also comes equipped with a card reader for SDs and a small slot for a security cable to protect from theft. If you want to stream a game or Netflix from your laptop, you could even plug an HDMI cord into it and watch everything on your TV (Just in case the 15 inches of high quality picture weren’t quite enough for your viewing pleasure!).

Another really unique thing about this particular model is its purported 10+ hours of battery life. That’s pretty unheard of with laptops in general, let alone the big gaming rigs. Average laptops only get about 6 hours or so, and that’s usually the maximum and usually only replicated during testing. Realistically, a laptop with a good battery would get about 4 to 6 hours during some moderate gaming and browsing on a full charge. Even with intensive use, this laptop’s 6 cell battery should last a good 5 to 8 hours on a single charge, making it one of the better choices in this price range. Something unfortunately common in expensive gaming laptops is limited battery life, which is sacrificed for power.

Processor

The Dell Inspiron i7559 comes equipped with a 6th generation Intel Quad Core i5 6300HQ processor, running at 3.2 GHz, meaning this is a pretty good processor these days. Four cores in a processor means more ability to handle complex tasks. This computer is enough to handle most video games and video editors, a good combination for anyone considering a Let’s Play channel on Youtube.

According to the site NoteBookCheck.com, the i5 6300HQ processor is roughly as powerful as the Core i7 472HQ, minus the ability to use hyper threading. Hyper threading basically gives a little bit of extra performance during heavy tasks like games and video editing. It’s also a lower power consumption model, which saves you many trips to the wall outlet throughout your day.

The onboard graphics chip is Intel HD Graphics 530. This laptop comes with a dedicated graphics card as well, but even with just the weaker integrated card, it would be able to play some games in low settings without too much lag. Some notable examples would be Bioshock Infinite, averaging out at 56 frames per second on low resolution and Tomb Raider coming in at 73 frames per second.

In addition to games a few years old, this laptop would be capable of playing Overwatch at up to 45 frames per second on low settings and 31 frames per second on medium settings. And this is just if it used the onboard graphics!

The RAM

The Dell i7559 comes with 8 GB of DDR3L SDRAM. Put simply, this means the RAM modules are more efficient and use less voltage than older forms of RAM. The RAM is also dual channel, meaning there are actually two modules, each with 4 GB of RAM. Dual channel memory is generally believed to be faster and better for gaming than single channel because it doubles the maximum bandwidth of the memory itself. The RAM is also upgradable to a whopping 16 GB, more than enough for even the latest games and programs.

OS

This model comes equipped with Windows 10 64-bit. Windows 10 is currently one of the best operating systems for gaming and general use. More games and programs are compatible with Windows than UNIX based systems like Macs and Chromebooks.Part of the reason for this is simply the popularity the Windows operating system has had for many years now. More programs are written for it because it’s the most common OS (although this is starting to change a bit). Nowadays, many games will also run on Mac but Windows is always the safest bet if you’re unsure about a specific game.

Also important to remember is that Windows 10 has been out for a few years now, so many of its bugs have been worked out. The Start Menu has also made its reappearance much to the delight of people who hated Windows 8.

Options

You have the option to buy this laptop with an i7 processor instead, if you’re buying through Amazon. The i7 processor is a bit more powerful and will still be suitable for high-end gaming in the future, but the i5 is almost as powerful and will run anything in our current day and age. The option to upgrade also increases your storage to a 1 TB HDD and an 8 GB SSD. Note that this is not in addition to the 256 GB SSD mentioned earlier. For an additional $60, you would be getting more storage and a faster processor, but if you’d rather save that money for a game and you don’t need that much storage, then the cheaper option should be just fine for you.

You can also purchase additional RAM sticks on Amazon. This adds $50 and may or may not be worth it, depending on your stance. 8 GB of RAM may only be average for gaming anymore, but many PC enthusiasts agree that you don’t need more than 8 GB to run most of anything. However, if you don’t plan on upgrading to a new rig in the next 5 to 10 years, it might be a good idea to upgrade to make sure you’re still able to play new games as they come out for years to come.

Storage

This Dell Inspiron comes with 256 GB of storage on a solid state drive. The major difference between a solid state drive and a traditional hard drive disc is that SSDs use technology similar to flash memory and do not contain spinning discs. In turn, they’re a bit faster but also much more expensive. 256 GB is a pretty decent amount of space for the price of this laptop, considering there are more expensive laptops being sold with much smaller drives these days. If 256 GB still seems a bit small to you, there are options on its Amazon listing for upgrades, but you could also invest in an external hard drive later on as well. Other advantages of SSDs include their lower power consumption, which saves you a bit of battery life, and the relative ease of data recovery. If your hard drive ever fails, you’ll be much more likely to recover data from an SSD than an HDD due to a lack of mechanical failure. They’re also less noisy, so there’s that, too.

Graphics

We pointed out the integrated Intel graphics earlier, but let’s talk about the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M card that also comes installed with it. It has 4 GB of dedicated video memory. This thing means serious business! Just look at some of the info we dug up on Notebook Check:

The brand new Resident Evil 7 is capable of running at up to 124 fps!

TitanFall 2 runs at 115 fps.

Doom runs at 71 fps.

Overwatch can run at an average whopping 190 frames per second on low resolution settings.

Who Will Like This Laptop?

Anyone who wants to play games will love this computer, and they’ll love the price too! For under $800, you can have a game capable of running just about anything you want with ease. You can use some of that leftover money in your computer budget if you have it, and buy some games instead.

Let’s players will especially adore this thing! Whether you use console capture cards or run your games from PC, you’ll be able to record your games without a whole lot of lag, and then edit your videos for viewing.

This laptop will be more than enough to suit the casual user. It may be a bit much for those who don’t play any games at all, but if you do choose to buy it, you’ll leave the door open for gaming or video editing in the future, should you get interested in it. At the very least, you’ll be able to open a bunch of tabs in your browser while listening to music and also typing up a Power Point Presentation, if that’s your thing. And you won’t experience any slowdown, either.

Why Did We Pick The Dell Inspiron i7559?

We’re gonna take some time to compare the Dell Inspiron i7559 to a few similar models from other companies and see why this week’s pick comes out on top.

Dell Inspiron i7559 vs Asus k501uw

Priced at $829 on Amazon, the Asus K501 model boasts some pretty good specs itself. It comes with the same graphics card as the Inspiron. The SSD storage is doubled and the processor is an i7 and is therefore a step up. However, these features will cost you an additional $90 when you could merely upgrade the Inspiron with an i7 even bigger 1 TB hard drive disk and get a slightly better deal for under $800.

The Asus model comes with an extra USB port, but the breakdown is 2 2.0 ports and 2 3.0 ports, so you won’t be able to use all your 3.0 devices too well. It boasts a nice metallic silver color and 6 hours of battery life depending on usage. Overall, this laptop isn’t a bad choice for budget gaming either, but the Dell is slightly more bang for the buck, especially with the actual list price of the Asus K501 being $949, meaning you could be way out of budget if you buy it from a place other than Amazon.

Dell Inspiron i7559 vs Lenovo y700

Let me get something out of the way real quick with the Lenovo Y700. Its battery life is the pits, with a max of 5 hours. That’s not the worst, but it’s not terribly efficient, either. Again, this one has almost the same specs as the Inspiron but for more money. A lot more. Just shy of $900 for maybe a slightly better performance. That may or may not be worth it to you. Its design is cool and stylish, but Amazon reviews seem to suggest that the hinges tend to break easily. Not a bad gaming model, but you can definitely do better.

Dell Inspiron i7559 vs Asus gl552vw

With a price tag over $1,000, this one might be a little pricey and out of budget. Its design suggests a great deal of durability and its specs aren’t half bad, either. But once again, it comes with the same graphics card and its storage and processing capabilities aren’t much of an improvement for the jump in price. This model does, however, boast 16 GB of DDR4 RAM. Overall, it’s a good gaming rig, but a little overpriced.

Dell Inspiron i7559 vs XPS 15

Hooo boy. Those of you with budgets under $1,800, look away. This one comes in a few different flavors: the nearly $1,900 one, which comes with 512 GB storage and 16 GB of RAM, and the one priced at $2369, with 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Both of these are beasts but are frankly overpriced for what you’re getting. Again, the graphics card is the same and the processor is only marginally better for the price.

Dell Inspiron i7559 vs Macbook Pro

There’s a few different variations of the Macbook Pro, so we’re going to compare the one most similar to the Dell Inspiron i7559. The 13 inch Macbook Pro MD101 comes with 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, a 500 GB SATA hard drive, and it will set you back $928. Macs are usually a bit more expensive than PCs because of a combination of good hardware and branding. Macs are decent for the average user, since most common programs are written for both Windows and Mac systems these days, including Microsoft Office. On the other hand, some games and software are written only with Windows operating systems in mind. So if you’re looking to a buy a new laptop specifically for gaming, you’re a little bit safer just sticking to PCs for now. Not to mention, you can get the same specs or better with the Dell Inspiron series for the price. If you’re on a budget, Macs in general might be a little out of range for you.

Dell Inspiron i7559 vs HP Omen

The HP Omen 15 is a pretty powerful model with a good design. The basic model comes with 16 GB of RAM, two hard drives (a 2 TB HDD and a 128 GB SSD), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M graphics, and an Intel i7 processor. These are all excellent specs but the $1249 price tag may be a deterrent. In terms of quality for price, the Inspiron would be the cheaper option for what you’re getting, but the HP Omen is a pretty good contender for under $1300. But the bottom line is that you can get something almost as good for under $1000, so the Dell i7559 is a better option for someone who wants to save money and still get a great computer.

Quick Comparison Guide

VERDICT

It’s a great laptop for inexpensive gaming! It proves you don’t have drop $1k to have a decent gaming laptop.

Overall, the Dell Inspiron 15 line is pretty solid, and the 700 series is built specifically with gaming in mind. This is very evident in the i7559 model.